Marc Malmdorf Andersen
Cognitive scientist, associate professor at Aarhus University.
Predictive Processing, Emotion, Play, Recreational Fear, Cognitive Development.
- Bonobos pretend!
- Imagination in bonobos! I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
- I'm still collecting children's folklore for my next podcast theme, and I'm getting some amazing responses - monsters, urban legends, games, even a Tin God! Still time to add yours to this Google Form: forms.gle/D8mLW7q2um5Z...
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- Children culture @sheinalew.bsky.social @dorsaamir.bsky.social 🥳
- "Combat both US tech capitulation and Enshittification at once." Thanks for these overviews @hansonmark.bsky.social and @parismarx.com 🙏
- Two weeks ago I started: - 🇳🇴 Vivaldi > Chrome 🇺🇸 - 🇨🇭 ProtonMail > Gmail 🇺🇸 - 🇨🇭 ProtonDrive > Dropbox 🇺🇸 - 🇬🇧 Anytime Player > American Podcast apps 🇺🇸 - 🇫🇷 Deezer > Spotify (basically 🇺🇸) - 🇬🇧 CityMapper > Google Maps 🇺🇸 It was easy. Most have a "import all settings and pick up where you left off" function
- 🚨 🚨 Publication alert🚨 🚨 Great work led by the brilliant @drelenamiu.bsky.social. Using agent-based models, we show that age-structured learning (kids explore broadly; adults refine/exploit) boosts long-term cultural payoffs vs. using the same strategies in random order. shorturl.at/rdlhv
- New study from @ndersen.bsky.social and colleagues combines two of my favorite things - haunted houses and physiological synchrony research. "Scared together: heart rate synchrony and social closeness in a high-intensity horror setting." 👻❤️⚡❤️🧟
- Thanks for the share, Ellen 🙏
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- We missed you, Neil! Your work came up several times! Next year!
- Aaand, we're off! The annual Recreational Fear workshop “When Fear Is Fun 2025” kicks off with Corinna Perchtold-Stefan. Corinna is enlightening us on why the true crime genre has such a massive gender difference, in favour of women consumers. Stay tuned! @aiasdk.bsky.social @au.dk
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View full threadNow up, Botond László Kiss! Botond is persuading us that in horror studies, the predictors of excitement and enjoyment seem to be slightly different and they should be considered distinct emotional responses to horror.
- Jarred Lorusso brings the workshop to a close with a fantastic talk on the relationship between individual uncertainty and horror preference 🥳
- We continue with the fascinating work by Sabrina Schneider, who delves into research on psychopathy and fear enjoyment. Sabrina’s work explores patterns in how psychopaths process fear stimuli, and how this may differ from people with no psychopathic traits.
- Now, @madisonlasaga.bsky.social is up, telling us all about her fascinating approach to using horror to investigate intrusive memories in PTSD.
- Come join the wonderful CogSci dep at Aarhus Uni, Denmark! Fantastic students, wonderful colleagues, and great work/life balance! We are looking for applicants with teaching experience in the field of computational modelling of cognitive and/or social processes. international.au.dk/about/profil...
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- 🎃👻 When Fear Is Fun 2025 🎃👻 Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12! Free participation, registration required. 🔗 Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/en/recreatio... 🔗 Register: event.au.dk/events/when-...
- The Recreational Fear Workshop explores why humans sometimes enjoy fear—and what it does to our minds and bodies. This year, we have a fantastic lineup of speakers, covering everything from PTSD, psychopaths, true crime consumption and the Paradox of Horror. Come join us at @aiasdk.bsky.social !
- Danish Media covers our recent study (article in danish): videnskab.dk/kultur-samfu...
- 🚨 Kids LOVE fear?!🚨 Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising: Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun! 📄 doi.org/10.1007/s105... [1/🧵]
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- 🧟♂️🚨 Publication alert! 🚨🧟♀️ Holy moly, I'm thrilled to announce our new paper in Emotion! We explored how recreational fear, physiological synchrony, and social closeness interact in a high-intensity haunted house setting. 1/5 🧵 Link: psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
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View full threadWe found that participants who synchronised their HRs with others in their group reported higher arousal. This synchrony was more pronounced among socially close dyads, suggesting that social closeness may facilitate physiological alignment during shared emotional experiences of fear. 4/5🧵
- Our results align with prior research showing that shared experiences can enhance physiological and emotional responses. Heart rate synchrony was higher among socially close individuals, though whether this reflects pre-existing alignment or emerges during shared fear remains unclear. 🧟♂️❤️🧟♀️ 5/5🧵
- It’s curious that we seek out fear for fun - and even more curious that we almost always do it together. We watch horror films in groups, visit haunted houses with friends, and tell ghost stories around the campfire. But how social dynamics shape our experience of fear remains largely unknown. 2/5🧵
- We recruited 347 guests at Denmark's scariest haunted attraction (Dystopia.dk). People go through this haunted house in groups of 4–5, often combining friends and strangers. Participants reported 1) who they knew and 2) who they felt emotionally close to. Everyone wore heart rate monitors. 3/5🧵
- 🚨 Kids LOVE fear?!🚨 Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising: Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun! 📄 doi.org/10.1007/s105... [1/🧵]
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View full thread🪶 They ask to poke a dead bird with a stick. 📱 They sneak peeks at horror clips online. 🏚️ They dare each other to jump from the shed roof. 🔪 They test how close their finger can get to a knife’s edge. These might sound concerning or odd - but they’re developmentally typical! [3/🧵]
- Fear play is mostly social - done with parents, siblings, or friends. And it might serve a purpose: helping kids manage emotions, evaluate risks, and above all promote learning. This is the first study to show how common that is across childhood. 👏👏 Amazing work, Mihaela! Congratulations! 👏👏 [4/🧵]
- We asked 1,600 parents of kids aged 1–17 what scares their kids - in a fun way. Climbing trees till their legs shake. Racing bikes downhill. Watching scary movies. Pretending to be monsters. Teasing older siblings. Playing with fire. 👉 93% enjoy at least one scary activity. [2/🧵]
- I still can't believe this! I'm deeply grateful to Bob Glushko and to @cogscisociety.bsky.social for this award. Huge thanks to my advisors @sabinehunnius.bsky.social and @neuroecologylab.bsky.social, and to many more collaborators, all the work in my thesis would have been impossible without them!
- Join us in congratulating the rising stars of #CogSci 🌟 We're excited to introduce the 2025 Glushko Prize winners, and the fascinating research behind their work!
- Well deserved!
- Thrilled to share the publication of "Can playing Dungeons & Dragons be good for you?" led by the brilliant @joelbillieux.bsky.social and his fantastic team. I was lucky to play a small part in this epic quest. 🎲🐉🧟♀️🔥⚔️ Link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #DnD #MentalHealth #TTRPG
